Art
What our children say about Art
EYFS- Arne ‘I like drawing pictures with Miss Neal, she always draws with us and we do it together.’
Year 1- Poppy and Thomas ‘I like mixing colours and making new ones, we get to use lots of different materials in different colours.’ ‘I like watching videos that I can follow and pause. Art makes me happy, I look forward to Art.’
Year 2- Dottie and Ruby ‘I love drawing, painting and creating things – I just love doing Art at school!’ ' Our teachers help us in Art by showing us how to do it. We get to watch them before we do it ourselves.'
Our Vision for Art
At Doddinghurst Infant School, our vision for Art is simple: we want to enable a safe space for children to feel creative, confident, and proud of what they can do. Art at our school is about exploring, having a go and discovering our own ideas in a nurturing space. Every child is involved and encouraged to SHINE, no matter theri starting point. We believe that Art should nurture children's well-being as much as their skills, and help them to understand that they belong and can take risks whilst experimenting. Our aim is for children to feel valued, supported and inspired as they discover new ideas, explore different materials and develop an artistic voice. We celebrate individuality, remove barriers, and make sure every child knows that their creativity matters.
How we teach Art
Our Art curriculum is designed to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum while reflecting our core values of sef-belief, happiness, independence, nurture and excellence. Using a mastery approach, we ensure all children have the opportunity to develop a deep and secure understanding of artistic concepts and skills through clear Quality First teaching, hands-on exploration, and encouragement.
Teachers model techniques step by step so that children fully understand how to use different tools and materials with growing confidence. We adapt the resources and teaching methods to meet the needs of individual children, ensuring that every learner can engage, progress and succeed.
Through our enquiry questions and key concepts including exploration, creativity and evaluation, children are encouraged to express themselves, develop confidence, and appreciate the work of great artists, craft makers and designers. By fostering independence and nurturing creativity in a supportive environment, we aim to inspire a lifelong love of Art and the confidence to celebrate the children's unique talents.
The Art curriculum is also enriched through real-life experiences. Children learn about artists that link to their enquiry-based learning to allow them to make clear, understandable links across all areas of their learning.
We have a wonderful Art room that provides a welcoming, inclusive space where children feel safe to take risks and explore a wide range of resources and materials.
What children learn and achieve
Art at our school helps children discover confidence, creativity and self-belief. The children learn new skills and see themselves as artists who can make unique choices and express their ideas in their own way. The children can talk about what they have created, use enriched vocabulary and share their creativity and learning with each other. With an approach that is nurturing and inclusive, every child in our school can take part and succeed. Children develop independence, resilience and take pride in their work. We ensure skills and techniques are well taught and revisited to ensure children grow in confidence and progress over time. We enjoy sharing our artwork with parents and carers allowing the children to celebrate what they have achieved. Through rich expereinces, whole school art projects and external opportunities, our children are able to build a wider understanding of the world and appreciate the creativity in it. By the time children leave our infant school they have a strong foundation of skills and techniques within Art, a love for creativity and the confidence to continue taking risks when exploring artistic materials and concepts as they move into Key Stage 2 and beyond.
Enrichment
Every year we ensure the children are provided with enriched opportunities to explore their artistic skills. We start the year with a whole school Art project to celebrate 'Dot day' where the children express themselves using a variety of materials. We use the National Art webite resources to engage in Art workshop opportunities. Where possible we take our children out ionto the wider community to explore local art galleries and community spaces to see Art up close. We hold an Art week where children have the opportunity to explore different skills and techniques and have access to different materials all helping to foster a love of Art.
Click on the links below to access the Art subject progression document and the Vocabulary progression document:
MISS CHLOE NEAL
Art Subject Lead
I have a passion for nurturing creative, imaginative and motivated minds. In my spare time I am a dance teacher and I value the creativity and freedom the art of dance brings to allow individuals to express their ideas and emotions with confidence. In the same way I aim to inspire a love and appreciation for Art by encouraging children to explore materials and resources freely and creativley. I believe Art is a powerful form of communication and I want to inspire children to become confident, adventurous and expressive artists!
How families can help at home
- Use recycled materials or natural resources found around the home to encourage creative art.
- Visit free museums, galleries or community art exhibitions.
- Use free online ‘how to draw’ videos – watch as a family and follow the step by step guide to drawing. https://www.youtube.com/user/ArtforKidsHub
- Join the local library (Shenfield) and join free creative Eco Craft Workshops https://www.brentwoodconnected.co.uk/eco-craft-workshop-with-retro-from-scratch-make-a-floral-wreath
- The Annual Brentwood Art Trail – pop-up gallery https://www.brentwoodconnected.co.uk/events/brentwood-art-trail
- Brentwood Museum – free admission https://brentwoodmuseum.uk/
- Immersive Online National Gallery https://imaginarium.nationalgallery.org.uk/#_gl=1*2qy3a9*_gcl_au*MTEzOTEwNzc5Ni4xNzc4NzkyNDcw
